SARASOTA – A recent Gallup Poll found three in 10 parents say their child is “already experiencing harm” to their emotional mental health due to social distancing and school closures.
“The very beginning nobody knew how long it was going to the last, the quarantine,” said Carla Johanns. “But as weeks progressed and went by we started to see and hear form parents was that lots of different behaviors started to pop off.
Johanns, Clinical Director of the Child & Family Therapy services at Forty Carrots says younger children exhibited regressive behaviors such acting out. But in teens it was quite the opposite. They exhibited a lot of isolation and withdrawal.
“Being away from friends, not having structure, being at home all day with their caregiver and their siblings, trying to home school,” said Johanns. “All those things were taken a toll of the whole family.”
Johanns says children and adolescents are mainly suffering from anxiety and depression primarily due to fears of the unknown.
“Children are by nature social, so by having that cut off from them cutting,” she said. “Not being able to interact with their peers and work on their social kills it’s been tough.”
And as they gear to return to the classrooms Johanns suggests having an open dialogue with your child can go a long way.
“Honestly the best thing that parents can do throughout this whole thing and as school starts up again is talk to their kids,” said Johanns. “Don’t be afraid to talk, don’t be afraid to ask the rough questions.”
Johanns says parents should also share how they’re feeling, practicing patience, and remind them that they are safe and loved.
“Find those support system for everybody so whether that is a friend, a family, a counselor, someone that the children and the parents can turn to if they feel like they’re going to go back into quarantine and they’re going to struggle with it,” said Johanns
For more resources to help your little ones and yourself get through the start of the first day of school Forty Carrots has several programs to help battle mental health in children.
